Construction begins on Chick-fil-A across from Riverside Plaza

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ORG XMIT: POWER27 1/24/02 Riverside METRO Jay Racz Exterior picture of Coco’s Bakery & Restaurant off of Central Drive in Riverside where many of the key players in Riverside’s business and political world meet for breakfast and lunch.

Construction workers in Riverside are moving dirt at the site of a Coco’s Bakery that was bulldozed to make way for a Chick-fil-A drive-through.

Chick-fil-A plans to open the location this summer, according to external communications manager Brenda Morrow.

This will be the Atlanta-based fast food chain’s first downtown restaurant, although it has an outlet at California Baptist University and a drive-through on Day Street near the Moreno Valley city limits.

Chick-fil-A specializes in one kind of protein, served in chicken sandwiches, wraps, strips and nuggets. it has more than 2,200 restaurants in 47 states. In an article published last week, Forbes called the chain’s growth staggering, with sales averaging $4.4 million per restaurant in 2017.

The new restaurant will be across the street from Riverside Plaza, part of an office center called Grand Central Plaza that houses the University of Redlands’ Riverside campus, U.S. Bank, and various eateries. Its storefronts are undergoing renovation, putting a lot of construction equipment on the block.

At 4,721 square feet, Chick-fil-A will have a smaller footprint than Coco’s, which was 9,800 square feet spread across multiple levels, Brian Norton, a senior planner for the city, wrote in an email. The entrance to Coco’s was several steps above street level.

But the square-footage doesn’t include the drive-through, and the developer requested a variance to have fewer parking spaces when the project came before the planning commission in June.

The drive-through will be able to handle 13 vehicles, according to Norton.

Fielding Buck has been a business reporter since 2014 with a focus on logistics, supply chain and GIS. Prior experience includes extensive entertainment reporting. He loves photography and dogs and lives in San Bernardino County.